How KEES Vacations grew $92K in 6 months with Marriott Homes & Villas connection through Rentals United
KEES Vacations is a North Carolina based property management company with luxury vacation homes and resorts across the state
| No. Properties Connected | 325 |
| Headquarter Location | Point Harbor, NC |
| Tech Used | Rentals United + Barefoot PMS |
| Website | Visit Now |
The challenges
Operational complexity from managing 325 properties of diverse types led to complexity and a high risk of manual error.
Expansion into premium OTAs demanded the essential capabilities of clustering and being the merchant of record.
Scaling to premium channels like Marriott Homes & Villas urgently required essential clustering and merchant-of-record capabilities.
Outcome
325
Properties managed4
Channels added8%
Revenue increase YoY
Clustering and merchant-of-record weren’t optional for us — they were absolute requirements. Without them, we couldn’t scale our distribution model.
KEES Vacations's success
The KEES Vacations story
In an industry defined by shifting traveller behaviour, fragmented demand patterns, and rapid marketplace innovation, leading operators are redefining what it means to scale hospitality. The most resilient brands today are those that blend hotel-level consistency with the autonomy and experiential richness that vacation rental guests expect — all while maintaining operational control and profitability across an increasingly complex distribution landscape.
KEES Vacations is one of those operators.
Based in North Carolina’s Outer Banks, KEES has built a reputation for elevating short-term rentals with hotel-style standards: flexible arrival days, high-quality amenities, streamlined operations, and a guest experience engineered for reliability. Their portfolio spans 325 units, from compact hotel-style rooms to 24-bedroom luxury homes — and their distribution strategy mirrors the precision of a hotel group.
But as KEES expanded into premium OTA ecosystems such as Marriott Homes & Villas, Booking.com and Expedia — while running both clustered (hotel-style) and unit-specific inventory — the stakes rose. They needed a partner capable of marrying vacation rental flexibility with hotel-grade inventory logic.
Their business model treats every stay like a hotel experience, all the way from the largest luxury villa, to the most modest hotel-style unit. The key to their strategy is to maintain a high standard of service. We’re talking about fresh linens and towels, amenity kits with toiletries, dishwasher tablets, detergents, flexible check-in days, really anything needed for a comfortable stay.
In recent years, as KEES expanded their reach into a selection of high-profile channels, the team needed to scale effectively while preserving the centralized control and service standards that define its brand. To do that they needed a partner capable of replicating hotel workflows across OTAs, unlocking unsold inventory, and protecting net yield — all while keeping the guest experience consistent and elevated at every stage of the journey.
For this success story, we spoke with Shelby Reca, Director of Hospitality Services at KEES Vacations, and the system operations lead behind the company’s multi-brand strategy, which includes sister companies KEES Hospitality and TripForth.
“Clustering and merchant-of-record weren’t optional for us — they were absolute requirements. Without them, we couldn’t scale our distribution model.” — says Shelby Reca.
The Challenge
KEES Vacations faced several operational and distribution challenges. The company managed a diverse portfolio of 325 properties that ranged from compact hotel-style units to sprawling luxury homes, and this variety created real operational complexity. Maintaining consistent rate rules, availability and listing content across dozens of unit types was difficult to do manually without the risk of human error. The risk of fragmented or “non-consecutive” gaps in inventory made it harder to present usable availability for large-group bookings unless units were clustered and managed intelligently.
At the same time, KEES wanted to expand into high-profile channels like Airbnb and Marriott Homes & Villas, without multiplying daily workloads or exposing the guest experience to errors. Selling on premium platforms such as Marriott Homes & Villas also introduced commercial challenges.
Their needs were twofold: the ability to act as the merchant of record (a priority for fund control and North Carolina state regulations) and the capability to cluster inventory, which allows them to sell identical units hotel-style instead of listing each individually on platforms like Booking.com
In short, KEES required a distribution partner that could scale channel presence while preserving margin control and operational quality.
The Solution
In 2021, KEES Vacations chose Rentals United’s channel management service after their previous channel manager discontinued its operations.
The partnership leveraged KEES Vacations’ long-standing Barefoot PMS integration (in place since 2015) and Rentals United superb connectivity to create a stronger and more resilient distribution stack.
Key technical and commercial features delivered:
- Clustering: Instead of showing several identical units separately, Rentals United lets KEES group them into one hotel-style listing. Guests see one clear option instead of many similar versions, which makes booking easier and helps KEES fill units more efficiently.
- Merchant-of-record capability: Rentals United’s commercial model allowed KEES to manage funds more effectively and apply bulk rate markups; crucial when listing on platforms that charge higher commissions, such as Marriott Homes & Villas.
- Limited sync: KEES used selective synchronization to automate availability, rates and booking rules while keeping tailored content and guest messaging under internal control, giving them the benefits of automation, without sacrificing their brand-famous hospitality.
- Block non-consecutive inventory gaps: The system prevents small, awkward gaps in the calendar, for example, one empty night (an orphan night) between two bookings. These gaps are hard to sell and reduce overall occupancy. Rentals United automatically protects KEES from creating these unusable spaces, making large homes and busy seasons much easier to manage.
The Results
KEES Vacations’ partnership with Rentals United has yielded a string of measurable outcomes:
Overall, the company has seen an 8% year-on-year increase in total revenue, driven by an improved distribution mix and higher conversion on premium channels.
The Marriott Homes & Villas connection, active since early 2025, has generated $92,000 gross rental income in just six months, by converting listings that previously sat unbooked or were hard to convert through traditional OTA exposure.
In fact, KEES logged 60 bookings via Marriott within the first year of its Rentals United partnership demonstrating how well hospitality-aligned inventory can perform, when presented on the right platform. It showed how profitability is possible without excessive margin erosion, even on premium OTAs.
A marked reduction in manual updates lowered the amount of errors and troubleshooting time, freeing the operations team to focus on guest experience improvements.
Consistent account management from Rentals United (highlighted by a low-turnover support team) enabled quick iterations and the confidence to test new channels such as Hopper and Plum Guide in future pilots.
Collectively, these improvements allowed KEES to scale distribution into new marketplaces while keeping their high service standards intact and protecting their bottom line.
Conclusion
KEES Vacations’ experience with Rentals United shows how a hospitality-first operator can use modern channel management not simply to list more inventory, but to translate hotel standards into OTA performance, unlocking new revenue streams while retaining the flexibility and guest-focus that define the brand.